Notes

From "Fort Necessity and historic shrines of the Redstone country: Washington bi-centennial issue, 1732-1932", by Sons of the American Revolution. Pennsylvania Society. Fort Necessity Chapter, Uniontown:

COLONEL WILLIAM CRAWFORD - INDIAN TRADER, PIONEER and SOLDIER ON THE FRONTIER, pg. 101

WILLIAM CRAWFORD, the Scotch-Irish Indian trader, pioneer and frontier soldier, was born in Orange Co., Virginia, in the year 1732 [Note: disagrees with other sources citing birthdate in 1722, also conflicts with marriage date in 1744], son of HONORA and HUGH CRAWFORD. When he was four years old his father died. His mother soon married RICHARD STEPHENSON. WILLIAM CRAWFORD, his brother, VALENTINE CRAWFORD, and their half-brothers, JOHN, HUGH, RICHARD, JAMES, and MARQUIS STEPHENSON, were raised in the Shenandoah Valley near Winchester in what is now Frederick County, Virginia...By the time WILLIAM CRAWFORD had passed his 26th year he had traveled across the Allegheny Mountains as a Captain in the army of General Forbes, when that general found Fort Duquesne abandoned by the French and Indians in the year 1758.

(pg. 102) In the year 1767 WILLIAM CRAWFORD settled in what is now Fayette Co...

Upon the erection of Bedford Co. in 1771, CAPTAIN WILLIAM CRAWFORD was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and this office was renewed on the erection of Westmoreland Co. in 1773...(pg. 113 is a picture of Ruins of Colonel Crawford’s Spring House, West Connellsville, Pa.)

Virginia's governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, traveled to Pittsburgh, which Virginia claimed as part of its territory, to appoint government officials under the Virginia charter. In 1774, the Virginia assembly separated the western portion of Augusta County's territory and formed the District of West Augusta.

The Ohio Company, founded in 1747, represented the trading and land prospecting interests of a handful of Virginia planters. In 1748, company representative George Mercer secured a land grant from the British Crown for 200,000 acres in the Ohio territory, a colloquial term for what is now modern day West Virginia, much of Ohio, western Pennsylvania and parts of Maryland. The company employed frontiersman Christopher Gist to survey the area of the grant and negotiate a treaty with the Native Americans in the 1750s. Gist embarked on three separate journeys into the Ohio territory in 1750-51, 1751-52, and 1753-54. The Ohio Company’s efforts in the contested region were largely stymied by the outbreak of the French and Indian War, despite its continued existence until its formal dissolution in 1779. Members of the company included Virginians George Mason, brothers Lawrence, Augustine, and George Washington, Virginia colony Governor Robert Dinwiddie, and British merchant John Hanbury. This collection includes manuscript copies of the Case of the Ohio Company, a collection of materials compiled by George Mercer to demonstrate the progress made by the Ohio Company, and a number of debt notes related to the company’s trade in dry goods. The collection documents the involvement of John Mercer, James Mercer, George Mercer, George Mason, George Croghan, Thomas Cresap, Adam Stephen, and William Crawford in the company. Digital reproductions of the collection are available electronically by following the respective "Digitized Folder Contents" links within the finding aid.

Colonel William Crawford led the ill-fated expedition against the Sandusky Indians in June of 1782; he was defeated, captured, and burned at the stake June 12, 1782. Valentine Crawford Jr. was confidante of President Washington and left a large family that settled in Virginia and the South before migrating westward. Extensively documented.